Rand Paul Came Dangerously Close to Having a Rick Santorum Moment on Gay Marriage

A same-sex marriage supporter hangs balloons in the colors of the pride flag on June 26, 2013, in San Francisco.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Yesterday, during an interview about gay marriage conducted by Glenn Beck, Sen. Rand Paul appeared to have a Santorum moment. "If we have no laws on this," said Paul, "people take it to one extension further—does it have to be humans? You know?" It came off as incredibly strange, as Paul has said quite a few times that government might do well to excuse itself from marriage altogether.

Sarcasm sometimes doesn’t translate adequately from radio conversation. Sen. Paul did not suggest that striking down DOMA could lead to unusual marriage arrangements. What he was discussing was that having the state recognize marriage without definition could lead to marriages with no basis in reality.

Unlike Texas, Ohio doesn’t have the filibuster, so there’s no opportunity for a brave lawmaker to try and repeat Davis’s performance. But Ohio does have a line-item veto, and so activists are doing everything they can to urge Governor Kasich to strike out the abortion restrictions. He is, of course, an anti-abortion Republican, and as of Tuesday afternoon, he’d refused to comment on the possibility of a veto. Nevertheless, pro-choice forces are clinging to the possibility that he’ll fear being cast as an aggressor in the war on women.

For whatever it's worth, senior members (though not leaders) of the House Judiciary Committee say they're ready for a Voting Rights Act fix.